California/Nevada League Lays Off Six Including Top Managers in Revamp

(Editor’s Note: This version of a story posted earlier today corrects some errors in reporting.)

In a major management shakeup, the California/Nevada Credit Union League has let go six employees reportedly including some senior managers.

Despite the painful and sudden nature of the dismissals, Diana R. Dykstra, president/CEO, stressed the positive impact their exit will have in bringing about a major refocus and re-orientation of league business.

She said the six employees who lost their jobs effective Aug. 17 will be replaced by eight new staffers including top managers to be hired in the next two months in newly created positions.

Dykstra, the former president/CEO of the $785 million San Francisco Fire CU who took the trade job two years ago, emphasized all of the dismissed staffers had been performing satisfactorily but that a greatly altered environment impacting credit unions required new talent to fill key roles.

Emails between member credit union CEOs indicated some of the laid off staffers were senior managers.

In a presidential alert distributed Wednesday, Dykstra declined to identify any of the departing employees to protect their “privacy and dignity” but said that decision to keep that information under wraps was a deliberate one timed to unveil the new structure “the new positions and new staff once they were all in place.”

In the presidential memo, Dykstra explained that over the last year “it has become clear to me that we needed to change what and how we do things to better serve our members. On Aug. 17, I executed a significant restructuring to better position the leagues to serve our members' needs. It was clear that your Leagues needed to reposition itself for future success given the rapidly changing credit union environment,” she wrote.

Dykstra said in developing the restructuring plan for the 61-employee trade group, it become necessary “unfortunately” to eliminate six positions.

Now, the league can proceed in filling new jobs with press releases on the new positions to be issued over the next 60 days, she told Credit Union Times.

She declined to be more specific on the nature of some of the new titles or exactly how they would reflect a changed credit union landscape “but it will be obvious when we announce them.”

In her alert, she again expressed dismay that the word about the dismissals leaked out ahead of the new hires and on that “I should have recognized that some of our members would have ‘gotten the word’ which would lead to speculation as to the reason behind these moves. I apologize for not letting our membership know immediately.”

She said each of the departing employees whose positions were eliminated “have all been valuable and respected colleagues and I thank them for their contributions over the years.”

In her alert discussing proposed changes approved in 2011, Dykstra outlined steps the league has already taken under her reign to become more attuned to a new landscape with more webinars and one-on-one contact with members.

“Our new structure emphasizes reaching out to members frequently, with a new senior vice president of member solutions role created. Each member credit union will be assigned to one of our management staff, who will be a single point of contact for all of your needs,” she wrote.

“You may have also noticed the regional CEO roundtables I've been holding throughout the state, which have been very valuable for our credit union CEOs who attended, as well as for me. We will continue these meetings and plan to have one roundtable per month in our two states.”

In the advocacy area, she concluded the league added the new position of vice president of regulatory advocacy to be more proactive in gauging the plethora of proposed regulations. The league has also added a new consumer advocacy position responsible for financial education community outreach and public relations, she said.